


Invasion

by xRinsexRepeatx



Series: Mini McSheps [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, Mind Meld, Post Episode: s02e04 Duet, like in duet, probably even post series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 01:56:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16822816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xRinsexRepeatx/pseuds/xRinsexRepeatx
Summary: ‘Not again’were the words going in a tailspin through Rodney’s mind, not a wraith attack again, not John being shot at again and actuallyhitfor once, not having toshare the inside of his head with another person again.





	Invasion

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a challenge from the [mcsheplets](https://mcsheplets.livejournal.com/) community, but I totally went over the maximum wordcount xux

_‘Not again’_ were the words going in a tailspin through Rodney’s mind, not a wraith attack again, not John being shot at again and actually _hit_ for once, not having to _share the inside of his head with another person again_.

 _’So I guess panic is how you get all your cardio, huh,’_ John’s disembodied voice said, only the feigned aloofness wasn’t quite as effective when Rodney could feel the tremors of worry and alarm running through it.

John had been shot down, and had needed a solid eight hours in surgery that they just didn’t have, not in the middle of a siege. It was Todd who had suggested they keep John in his dart’s buffer until they had more time, Zelenka who had pointed out they might be able to replicate the accident, and Rodney who had volunteered as lab rat under the claim that he’d had the most practice of all of them at keeping another consciousness in his head.

_’Rodney, focus.’_

“Yes, the chair, I’m _going_ ,” Rodney snapped out loud, ignoring Zelenka’s ‘so it worked?’ as he rushed past, out from the hangar bay and into the nearest transporter. There wasn't any time.

It was different from with Cadman. John already felt more _there_ , his presence like a tangible thing, his determination to save everyone pushing Rodney to run faster through the final corridor.

Rodney threw himself in the command chair, took a breath, and let go.

And laid still except for heaving breaths.

“Colonel? Any second now.”

 _’Hang on,’_ John gritted out, and Rodney could feel him try to push through, but there wasn't any time and he was still miles below the surface even though he was _so close_ , close enough to touch --

_’No **time** ’._

Rodney pulled at John, grabbed at him as if he was just another Ancient interface and demanded control of the chair, _John's_ control.

A quiver, a feeling like a string snapping or the burst of a bubble, and Rodney had it all.

They fired the first barrage of missiles, and Rodney saw endless sand come hurtling towards him as the helicopter went down.

They fired the second as a beautiful woman told him she was sorry, and folded his hand around a still warm ring.

They fired the third and he laid in a tent on another world, listening to the soft snores of the person who had somehow become _his_ person, and ached and ached and didn't reach out, a dozen times, hundred times, in a kaleidoscope of almosts.

The hive ship went down, and Rodney let John go, and the thin thin wall between them went quiet and cold.

“John?”

His voice didn’t bounce off anything in the small room, didn’t leave a single trace, didn’t cause a flicker. John was silent. Shut down.

Rodney was anything but, all live wires and light speed thoughts. John. _John._

He hadn’t known, hadn’t had a single clue -- only he had, and, oh. It made perfect sense, now. He’d missed it for far too long, because (as he’d just realized), it had settled in him from the very first moment, and had grown slowly, easily, had become his roots, the one thing that kept him grounded, from completely losing it any of the too many times they’d almost died.

A reckless flyboy turned transgalactic military commander was the only one who could keep him steady whenever he risked spinning out of control, and of course that’s what it took.

But right this moment John had left, and Rodney was spinning hard.

He snapped John’s name, yelled it, kept his voice from falling into cracks by sheer force of will. Rodney refused to think of the possibility that he’d actually broken John, somehow. He took a breath, a short, sharp one.

“John, if you don’t answer me _now_ I’ll --”

There was a sensation like the crackling of a radio around his left temple.

 _’Just get me out of here,’_ John said, sounding far away and tired. Rodney crossed his arms over his chest, in part as a gesture, in part because he wanted to get closer to John, wanted to push into his massive personal space and force a reaction, opposite and equal.

“No,” he said, loud and clear, and clenched his jaw.

The next pause was two-point-four seconds long.

 _‘Rodney.’_ John sounded better, his voice closer and holding that slow, simmering cadence that meant he was about to snap. Rodney felt their heart begin to speed up.

“No!” A pause. “I’m not sorry.”

 _’You should be.’_ Accusing. Defensive.

“Yes, what a tragedy, we saved the city and you want to sleep with me. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me! Or, I can, with how your military has a hard-on for repression and denial, and not to mention my many conquests of the fairer sex, how could you possibly know I tend to oscillate all over the Kinsey scale --”

_’Rodney --’_

“It’s a yes. All of those times. Any of them. I just -- people don’t usually have brilliant ideas before I do.”

John didn’t say anything, because he didn’t have to. He just had to come back.

He did, and their mind filled with his warmth and daring trepidation. Or maybe that was Rodney. He couldn’t tell.

It didn’t matter.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are love <3


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